Building Cultural Competency in Today’s Children’s Publishing Industry: A Working Symposium 2019

Join Us To:

Continue the “Essential Conversations” we began at last year’s Building Cultural Competency Symposium. Understand the complexities of cultural competency to foster equity in communities, classrooms, and on the bookshelf. Explore allyship in children’s literature. Cultivate the tools you need to maintain and grow your own Cultural Competency.

What You’ll Learn

You will:

• • Discuss histories of marginalized people in children’s books.
  • Foster competency-building activities and discussions around key readings, including critical reviews.
  • Explore allyship, particularly in children’s literature.
  • Cultivate the tools you need to maintain and grow your cultural competency.
  • Begin exploring the complexities of cultural competency to foster racial equity in communities, classrooms, and on the bookshelf.

</ul

The faculty recommends that all registrants read these before the course begins:
The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo
The article: “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

Attend If:

• • • You work in the publishing industry. Editors, agents or publishing executives will deepen their understanding of cultural competency in the industry.
    • You’re a writer or illustrator who is following this conversation on social media. This course will give you a better understanding of these conversations and give you ways to have appropriate conversations about your work.
    • You’re considering writing a story outside your own experience. This course can give you a better understanding of these books and some tools in cultural competency for you to use when you write.
    • You’re a MFA professor. Could you benefit from a professional development opportunity around cultural competency? This is that opportunity.
    • You’re teaching teachers. College professors who work with pre-service teachers can learn how to bring them into this important conversation.
    • You’re building a classroom library. This course will help teachers find ways to be inclusive with their choices and ways to talk about the books with students.
    • You’re an ally of the fight for correct cultural representation in children’s books. Librarians, media, booksellers, bloggers, book reviewers–all allies are welcome to join us and learn.

Agenda

Our workshops typically include faculty presentations, hands-on exercises, specialty topic sessions, some level of feedback, and retreat time for working on your own projects. Although we don’t have a finished agenda for this course yet, see a sample agenda here to get an idea of what to expect.

Resources

Edith Campbell’s blog
Dr. Debbie Reese’s 2019 May Hill Arbuthnot lecture
Faculty Interview: Marilisa Jiménez García
Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo.

Testimonials